In February, Sacramento County, California was seeing a spike in concealed carry permits. Sheriff Scott Jones is a strong advocate of law-abiding citizens obtaining their gun permits saying, the ordinary American citizen face the same dangers as he does. ABC KXTV 10 reported at the time that since assuming the office, Jones has approved 90 percent of the applicants that want a carry permit. He wishes that number were higher. He also added that he’s quick to give them, and quick to take them away for anyone who violates the law. Yet, for now, the concealed carry permit division is shut down due to budgetary matters. It’s set to re-open in July, but some residents say it’s leaving them vulnerable (via KCRA):
"It's costing me my safety," said Mariah Rivera, a college student whose appointment with the Concealed Weapons Unit was abruptly canceled by email."So this being postponed really sets me back," Rivera told KCRA 3.
Sheriff Scott Jones declined to respond on camera Tuesday, instead issuing a statement to KCRA 3, in which he called the decision a "slowdown in CCW application processing."
The Concealed Weapons Unit is shut down until July for new applications, and is processing only renewals because of budget concerns, "that include cuts to on-call hours in the CCW unit, which necessitated the cancellation of some scheduled appointments for May and June," Jones wrote.
His department has been hearing from plenty of concerned people like Rivera.
Sheriff Jones has issued 7,500-8,000 permits during his tenure is which more than any of his five predecessors combined. While people, like Ms. Rivera, have to wait, the silver lining is that the sheriff should approve virtually every new applicant when the office re-opens.
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